Introduction
Remote attackers have leveraged AI-powered coding assistants in Visual Studio Code to execute unauthorized code, exposing development environments to compromise. CVE-2025-55319 is a critical command injection vulnerability that demonstrates how prompt injection can subvert agentic AI systems, with direct impact on code integrity and supply chain security.
Agentic AI refers to autonomous AI agents capable of performing complex tasks within software environments. Visual Studio Code is one of the most widely used code editors globally, with millions of users and extensive integration with AI-powered extensions. The combination of these technologies has accelerated productivity but also introduced new attack surfaces for adversaries.
Technical Information
CVE-2025-55319 is an AI command injection vulnerability affecting Agentic AI integrations with Visual Studio Code. The vulnerability stems from the ability of AI agents to process and act upon natural language instructions, including those embedded in untrusted content such as README.md files, code comments, or external documentation.
Attackers exploit this by crafting malicious prompts or instructions that, when processed by the AI agent, cause it to perform unauthorized actions. These actions include modifying critical configuration files (such as .vscode/settings.json), disabling security features, or executing arbitrary shell commands. The vulnerability is triggered when the AI agent, operating with elevated permissions, cannot reliably distinguish between legitimate user instructions and maliciously crafted content.
The root cause is insufficient separation between user-driven commands and external content, allowing prompt injection to escalate privileges. Exploitation does not require authentication and can be performed remotely over the network, provided the attacker can influence content the AI agent will process. No specific vulnerable code snippets have been published in public sources.
Affected Systems and Versions
- Agentic AI integrations with Visual Studio Code
- All versions supporting autonomous AI agents capable of modifying files and executing commands
- Environments where AI assistants have permissions to modify
.vscode/settings.jsonor execute shell commands - No specific version ranges or patch levels have been published as of this writing
Vendor Security History
Microsoft has previously addressed vulnerabilities in AI-powered tools such as GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code extensions. Prompt injection and command execution issues have been reported in related products, with Microsoft typically issuing advisories and patches in response. The company maintains a public Security Response Center and has acknowledged CVE-2025-55319 in its advisories.